The National Association for the Advancement of
Colored People came to the Florida Capitol on Tuesday to launch a national campaign
against policies that withhold voting rights from millions of people who have a
felony conviction on their record.

With national NAACP president Benjamin Todd Jealous
and Golden Globe-winning actor Charles Dutton headlining, the group tried to shine a spotlight on the the issue of "felony disenfranchisement."

“Voting is a right,” said Jealous, speaking from the steps of the Old Capitol in Tallahassee. “In this state,
the governor has decided to turn back the clock.”

In Florida,
people who have been convicted of felonies must wait five to seven years after
completing their sentences to apply for restoration of civil rights, including
the right to vote. The process can take several additional years to work
through the system, and the number of applications processed per year has fallen
precipitously in recent years.

Last year, Gov. Rick Scott and the Florida Cabinet ended the policy of
automatically restoring rights to released felons, a policy started under
former Gov. Charlie Crist. Most
states automatically restore the right to vote to felons who have served their
prison time.

Scott said last year
that the changes were enacted in a reform effort that “prioritizes public
safety and creates incentives to avoid criminal activity.”

"Gov. Scott believes that for convicted felons to re-enter civic society, they must demonstrate a commitment to remaining crime-free as well as a willingness to request to have their rights restored," a Scott spokesperson said Tuesday.

NAACP leaders counter that the move was one of many
that Republicans have used to suppress the votes of blacks and minorities. Blacks
make up about half of Florida’s
male prison population, though they account for less than 15 percent of the
state’s population.

Speaking at the NAACP event, Sen. Arthenia
Joyner, D-Tampa, said that was one move among many aimed at suppressing the
votes of blacks, who form a loyal Democratic voting block.

“Why the long waiting period?” said Joyner. “The
governor claims it seems reasonable. Reasonable? Reasonable because too many
ex-offenders are returning to a life of crime, or, reasonable if the GOP is
trying to stack the deck against Democratic candidates?”

NAACP will be putting up billboards across the
country with pictures of former felons who have been denied the right to vote,
including celebrity spokespeople like Judge Greg Mathis and Dutton.

“I was released from prison in 1976 and I was only
allowed to vote in 2007,” said Dutton, who has starred in movies like Alien 3 and A Time to Kill.

The aim of the campaign, said Jealous, is to bring
more public awareness to the issue of “felony disenfranchisement” and convince
governors in states like Florida, Virginia, Iowa and Kentucky that they are
they are on the wrong side of history.

“It’s easy to do dirt in the dark,” he said. “It’s
harder to do dirt in the light.”